Invading Granada

Grenada

A daughter of one of US Presidents took courses in Spanish at the department where I later studied. This is a story her language instructor shared with us.

One of the assignments in the course was for each student to prepare a presentation on a country that the US had invaded (which I think is a very stupid kind of assignment, both intellectually and linguistically, but whatever.) The President’s daughter was assigned a small Caribbean country of Granada.

On the day of the presentation, she decorated the board with beautiful pictures and started narrating.

“Granada is a city in Andalucia, Spain, located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains. . .”

“Wait,” the instructor said, “I understand that you are closer than I am to the place where the decisions to invade are made. As far as I know, though, Granada has never been invaded by the US. Unless there is

The Alhambra of Granada

some news you want to break to us here. . .”

P.S. Whether the story is true or not, I want to mention that I think the instructor behaved like an asshole here. I would never treat a student this way, no matter how many grievances I might have against her parents.

P.P.S. I really want to travel to Grenada for the spices. They have the best nutmeg on the planet.

According to a 1988 National Geographic picture atlas I have, the most-widely spoken languages in Grenada are English and French Patois. The link Anonymous gave backs this up. I’d therefore like to wonder where this teacher got the idea that they speak Spanish there (as the term “Speak Spanish there” is commonly understood, namely that Spanish is official or widely-spoken there [in Grenada]).